Many argue the conduct of the Senate OTL towards the Gracchus brothers and their attempts to reform marked the decline of Rome as a Republic by the 2nd B.C.E. Their attempts at reform draw the closest comparison I can think of to the US Homestead Act, in its principle of giving at least.
So somehow Tiberius, Gaius Gracchus or both push many of the patricians to give up portions of holdings throughout the empire and grant them to subsidized and/or tax exempt for a time being citizens to settle as farmers. One thing to consider is how in the world this could happen, perhaps if they got enough of the tribune and publicans (regional governor and tax collectors) with the duty to call upon legions to turn on the senate, as well as by threat of civil insurrection from the plebeians, the patricians relent.
What many don't seem to cover here in any Roman TL is how the post Carthage Roman Empire basically became a slave run economy, since patricians, and publicans to a lesser extent, bought up much of the fertile land within the empire setting up latifundia (plantations) in where not only slaves did much of the hard labor but also transported, and did business transactions on behalf of their masters. Even a highly subsidized farm working plebeians would have a tough time competing with the scale the patricians built up, especially if they could not afford slaves themselves.
So do you think the kind of reform the Gracchus brothers proposed as their max intent is ultimately futile even if it succeeded to pass or would it be able to hold out long enough to spur innovation from the citizenry to the effect of creating a Roman cotton gin?

Regardless, its success would still have large repercussions regarding how future rulers in the region were able to treat property and eminent domain. Any other thoughts?